John Bennett is a Math teacher and a homeschooling father of four, as well as an outspoken advocate of educational reform. He supports an unusual proposal: that we cease to require Math instruction in middle and high school. He explains why in the video below.
John is the creator of Pentagrid Puzzles, a new puzzle form he designed to challenge deductive logic and visual-spatial reasoning (you can purchase Volume I here). He has also created several other BrainGames, for which he provides instructions on his blog.
While I am certainly not going to go so far as to cut out math instruction from our homeschool curriculum, I do plan to incorporate Pentagrid Puzzles into The Boyβs math instruction. He struggles with visual-spatial issues, and this will be a great way for him to work on them. Not to mention, it shouldnβt be hard to convince him to work on Math when it involves fun games!
What do you think about John Bennettβs supposition that Math instruction is unnecessary?
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Thanks for sharing the video, I think he makes a good case against at least, compulsory higher math. In my somewhat atypical typical life I use very basic algebra and geometry and nothing higher (for the day to day. I will probably still expect the kids to tackle higher math in high school BUT I really like the idea of using logic puzzles as a supplement to that. Actually I wish he had cut a bit of the speech about his different strategies so more of his time could be spent talking about the puzzles. Visual/spatial strategies and activities take a high priority in our home learning.
I wish he’d spoken more about the puzzles, as well. My son has some visual/spatial issues, so I’d shied away from those activities in the past. I’m definitely going to make them more of a priority in our curriculum.
For developing visual spatial in an older kid, the SET card game and shapeometry are good to use. π
Thanks for the tip!!